Felt Pocket Christmas Advent Calendar – Tutorial

This is a sponsored post for 3M via Digital Parents Collective. This project and all opinions are my own.

This Christmas is the first one where my eldest daughter is really aware that it is coming. There has been a lot of excitment and discussion about Christmas around here lately (and it’s still only November! Eek!) She is almost four and the thing she is most excited about is the decorating, so I’ve been really mindful to include her in my Christmas craft projects this season. She helped me with many of the steps for this project!

This advent calendar is simple and fun, and the best part is you can use it year after year! This is also a great Christmas project for older children to make.

Once you have your pieces cut, use 3 strands of embroidery floss and do a simple running stitch around the sides and bottom of the felt to create the pockets. Once they are finished use the hole punch and punch a hole in the middle of the top of the pocket for easy hanging.

Use your numbered stickers and decorate each pouch to create the advent pockets. (This is a great step to include your little ones in the project!)

Choose your location for your advent calendar. I had two options – the windows in the back room or the sliding door between our kitchen and dining room. I chose the sliding door for the white background, and also in case I want to put chocolates in the pockets – they would melt if I chose the window! The Command Clear Hooks can be used on a huge range of surfaces including glass, plaster, wood and laminex – and they are just the surfaces I’ve tried!

I chose a random pattern and started with my Christmas Day pocket in the middle and placed the other pockets radiating out from that middle pocket, in no particular order. The hooks are easy to position and reposition if you need to – I repositioned a couple of hooks about four times to get the pockets where I wanted them.

All done! The clear hooks are great because they don’t distract from the project and they coordinate with any choice of colour. They come off cleanly so if you’d like to use your felt pocket advent calendar in another location next year there are no left over marks or nail holes. Perfect if you live in a rental property!

You can pop chocolates or sweets in the pockets but I plan to put little messages with a Christmas related activity to do each day with the girls – for example “Write and post a Christmas card to Nan Nan & Papa” or “Wrap Dad’s Christmas present”.

Command Clear Hooks are perfect for all your Christmas decorating and projects, and are available in a range of sizes for different weights including mini, small and medium hooks and utensil and decorating clips. They are priced at $6.99 (RRP) and can be purchased at leading supermarkets and retail outlets. You can have a look at this great Christmas decorating idea using 3M hooks

Giveaway! *now closed*

I’ve got five 3M Command Clear Hook packs containing the whole range (mini, small, medium hooks, utensil and decorating clips valued at $36.35). All you have to do to win a pack is leave a comment telling me about a sentimental Christmas decoration that you love or remember from your childhood. (Mine is a reindeer I made from pegs when I was 6. I still have it and hang it on the tree every year!)

I will choose my five favourite comments and winners will be notified by email. The competition closes on Thursday 29th November 8pm AEDST. Open to Australian readers only.

35 thoughts on “Felt Pocket Christmas Advent Calendar – Tutorial”

Great idea to put messages about activities to do in the advent calendar pockets, Ros. It looks great!!! I love a red, wooden man that we used tp hand on our Christmas tree. There was a string attached and when you pulled on the string, his legs and arms would move. It used to fascinate me!!!

I have some tinsel that was used on my family's Christmas tree in the 1950s. This particular decoration has been used every year since it was new. It is not like today's tinsel. Perhaps it is a streamer really. It is a ribbed heavy foil about two metres long, about two centimetres wide. When my son was to have his first Christmas my mother sent me a parcel of Christmas treasures and this was in it. I value the care which was demonstrated by my parents in keeping this small decoration. Memories of a loving home run from my hair to my toes each year when I place it on the tree. Eventually I will pass it on to my son.

Cute! I really need to do an Advent Calendar. My favourite decorations were these stars my Mum has that she would put on the tree when we were kids. When I think about them now they look a bit satanic (5 pointed star in a circle) but I love them!

Gorgeous idea – I love the idea of an activity advent calendar (as opposed to the chocolate kind!). This is a sewing project that I think even I could manage!My favourite sentimental Christmas decorations are the three wise men handed from the Grandmother to me. They're cardboard and felt with guilded cardboard crowns.

your advent is wonderful. when my husband and i got married, he found out that i loved precious moments, but didnt have any of my own yet. we got married in september. for thanksgiving he bought me a precious moments tree topper Timothy an angel. and then for christmas he gave me a precious moments manger set. its not the money that speaks to me, but that my husband listens to little things i say and dont say, and then acts on them. it is now 28 yrs later and timothy and the manger set still grace our front room. and my husban still listens intently.

Very very cute! My most sentimental Christmas decoration is the year we couldn't afford a Christmas tree and my eldest (at the age of 4) decorated one drawn onto a large piece of cardboard with crepe paper and bits of coloured wrapping paper and tinsel. We hung it on the wall and put the presents "underneath"! It meant soooooo much on the day!

I think my most sentimental christmas decoration would be my new metal stick look christmas tree (sits on a table). Hubby like to decorate the Christmas tree and have it look more professional however i love to display the childrens handmade items, the two just don't go together (egg cartons and professional just don't seem to work lol) so now i display all the childrens handmade pieces on my little metal tree which sits on the dining table for the entire month of December. The children add to it each year and when we have Christmas gatherings we add candy canes and crackers to it as well.

oh thank you for the wonderful advent idea, i have green felt to cut into a Christmas tree shape and some other felt colours to make decorations so the little ones can decorate the tree as often as they like over the Christmas period. I can see red pockets working on our wall above their felt tree, although i think i'll hang some string above ours so they look a little like bunting giving it a complete decorated feel 🙂

As far as I remember we had at my parents house the star to put on the top of the tree. It was a golden and sparkly star but with the years, some places on the star had no more sparkle and you could see the plastic. Every year my mother and I said we will change it and we never did.

When my kids were born my friend made them each a Christmas ball with their names on it. Years later they still put them up on the tree. They are falling apart, but they still go up. (Around the back) just to keep the peace!

I love the clay reindeer that my son made when he was little, it's so cute, I will keepmit forever. It is quite fragile, so I dont pack it away after Christmas, it stays up in the "good cabinet" all year, just to come out for Christmas…

My sentimental ornament that I love is an angel my eldest daughter made in kindergarten. It has a cardboard coned body, foam ball face, googly eyes, and tinsel for hair, and a pipe cleaner halo! She is beautiful and too big to put on the tree, but we put her at the bottom of the tree each year.

I made a felt stuffed christmas pink bunny for our christmas tree when I was about 8yrs old, every year my mum lovingly pulls out this awkward looking bunny for the tree, even though it now looks dreadful & we get to admire/laugh at it all christmas long 🙂

I still have the paper lanterns my sons made when they were at kinda(they are 38, 35 & 34 now), they are still rapt when they see them on the tree. I have put my grand childrens'(we have 4) names on Christmas baubles and their eyes light up when they see them hanging from the tree.

A nativity set made with paddle pops and paper cut outs, it was made the year my step dad came to live with us and I have kept it ever since … it reminds me of our family unit staying together forever. It comes out every christmas.

We had some homemade decorations which were a type of pastry cooked and painted. I loved them but sadly when we emigrated to Australia we werent allowed to bring them with us. I have tried to recreate them but sadly Mum is no longer with us and I dont have the recipe.

Your advent calendar is the stuff of childhood memories! Thanks. I just recently discovered these hangers, and am delighted. Thanks for a chance to win.We no longer have them, but i loved the bright bubble lights. Once they got hot, the liquid inside would begin to circulate air bubbles. Sort of tiny precursors of the '60's lava lamps!My current favorite Christmas decoration is a brass candle stick and a pillar candle that is lit each Christmas Eve. The Tree's lights are on, other lights are dimmed. While the candle is lit, those no longer with us are remembered… It is a quiet, peaceful time of recollection.

We have some 'kindy' made little frames with the childrens photos , name and years . We also have done their handprints a couple of years in a row.We love our handmade decorations – this year we are making a new angel for our tree 😀

A little crystal reindeer ornament my aunt bought back from Scandanavia many, many years ago. It has one broken antler (we won't mention who was responsible will we…Dad?) which has been glued back on countless times, but still it graces Mum and Dad's tree every year.larabelle68@gmail.com